Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, continues to be the focus of takeover speculation while losses have just doubled in the first quarter of 2024 and revenues halved from natural gas production assets in the Haynesville Shale basin.
Tellurian earlier in 2024 hired the investment bank Lazards to explore a sale of its Haynesville gas production business in East Texas and Louisiana as part of efforts to raise new capital to continue the Driftwood project with full permits to produce 27.6 million tonnes per annum.
Tellurian then added that it would consider offers for the whole of Driftwood LNG after unsuccessfully pursuing long-term sales and purchase agreements to finance the development.
The Driftwood project as it currently stands involves constructing 20 mid-scale processing Trains, each with 1.38 MTPA of capacity and built as five blocks of Trains.
According to the regulatory permits and building schedules the Phase One development would include the first two of these blocks for 11 MTPA of output and two of three planned 235,000 cubic metres storage tanks and the first of three planned loading berths for LNG carriers.
Tellurian’s natural gas assets include 31,149 net acres, interests in 159 producing wells and over 400 drilling locations in the Haynesville Shale.
Latest earnings
Tellurian’s latest balance sheet showed that income from natural gas sales halved in the first quarter of 2024 to $25.47 million from $50.93M in the same three months of 2023.
Net losses also surged to $42.02M from $27.49M of losses in the same quarter of 2023.
Executive Chairman Martin Houston made no comment on the takeover speculation nor on gas assets sales and said in the earnings statement that Tellurian continued making progress on Driftwood LNG phase one construction with contractor Bechtel Energy of the US.
“Over the past few months, our senior team has sharpened its focus on stability, financial discipline and execution and we are laser-focused on bringing Driftwood to final investment decision,” Houston explained.
“To this end, we continue to take important steps to improve our balance sheet and liquidity position, and we continue to benefit from our strong regulatory standing,” he added.
“In addition, we have better aligned our commercial offerings to meet the needs of potential customers and we are highly encouraged by our ongoing commercial discussions,” Houston stated.
Permit extension
The Chairman noted that Driftwood LNG received an extension through 2029 to both the order authorizing construction from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and its Section 404 permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
As of the end of March, Tellurian said it had $1.3 billion in total assets, including around $51.8M of cash and cash equivalents.
